A communication system operates to communicate data between a sending station and a receiving station upon a communication channel. The communication channel connects the sending and receiving stations together. And, the data is communicated by the sending station upon the communication channel to the receiving station. To permit the data to be communicated upon the communication channel, the sending station generally operates first to convert the data into a form amenable to communication of the data upon the communication channel. When delivered at the receiving station, the informational content of the data is recovered.
Communication systems have been developed and implemented to permit the effectuation of many different types of communication services.
A radio communication system is an exemplary type of communication system. In a radio communication system, the communication channel that interconnects the sending and receiving stations is defined upon a radio link extending therebetween. The radio link is defined upon a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Because a radio link is used upon which to define the communication channel rather than a wireline connection, a radio communication system can provide communication mobility. A communication system that, instead, utilizes a conventional wireline connection upon which to define the communication channel is typically of limited mobility due to the need to interconnect the sending and receiving stations by way of the conventional wireline connections.
A cellular communication system is a type of radio communication system. The networks of various types of cellular communication systems have been installed throughout significant portions of populated areas of the world. And, cellular communication systems have achieved wide levels of usage by large numbers of users who subscribe pursuant to a subscription service to communicate therethrough.
Communication stations of a radio communication system form radio transceivers capable of both sending and receiving signals upon radio links extending between the radio transceivers. Radio transceivers of the network part of a cellular communication system are referred to as base transceiver stations (BTSs), and radio transceivers carried by subscribers and used by the subscribers to communicate pursuant to a communication session to effectuate a communication service referred to as mobile stations.
Base transceiver stations, as well as other communication stations operable in other communication systems, sometimes include antenna assemblies that permit directional antenna beam patterns to be formed. The creation of directional antenna beam patterns facilitate improved communications in the communication system as directional antenna beam patterns elongated lobes can be formed to increase the communication range between which data can be communicated between a base transceiver station and a mobile station. And, through the use of directional antenna beam patterns, reception of interfering signals can be reduced.
To take advantage best of the selectable nature of an antenna assembly that provides for selectable antenna pattern configurations, a manner is required by which to select the antenna pattern configuration to be exhibited by the antenna assembly pursuant to a particular communication session. In at least one conventional manner by which to select the antenna pattern configuration to be exhibited by the antenna assembly, measurements are made at a communication station, such as a base transceiver station, of channel conditions on a channel upon which data is communicated thereto. That is to say, a base transceiver station detects channel conditions on a reverse link channel based upon detection at the base transceiver station of data communicated thereto by a mobile station. Responsive to the measurements, the antenna pattern configuration subsequently to be exhibited by the antenna assembly of the base transceiver station is selected.
Calculations performed responsive to detection of the data communicated to the base transceiver station upon the reverse link channel, however, are computationally complex. The need to perform numerous computations requires both computational capacity of processing apparatus to perform such computations as well as a computation time period during which to perform the computations. The computation time period might be so long as to prevent the selection of the antenna pattern characteristics to be exhibited by the antenna assembly without delaying subsequent communications pursuant to effectuation of the communication service.
In a communication system which utilizes a frequency division duplex (FDD) communication scheme, the calculations required to be performed include calculations that attempt to correspond channel conditions upon a reverse link channel with channel conditions upon a forward link channel. By making correspondence therebetween, an estimate of the forward link channel is determinable. And, responsive to estimations of the forward link channel, the antenna being patterned is formable in manners expected best to facilitate subsequent communications.
As the computational complexity of the computations required, pursuant to conventional manners by which to select the antenna beam patterns to be exhibited by an antenna assembly might cause time delays limiting the usefulness of the selection, any improved manner that reduces the computational complexity of the computations would be advantageous.
It is in light of this background information related to antenna beam pattern selection that the significant improvements of the present invention have evolved.